This post is brought to you by the Wagner Company.
Today I am sharing the latest update in our laundry room, where I recently added cabinetry. I wanted to show you how you can easily add affordable cabinets in any space simply by using unfinished stock cabinets and painting them with my HomeRight Super Finishmax paint sprayer.
I cannot believe how far our laundry room has come over the last few months. Here’s a look back at the before, when we basically had walls, a washer /dryer, and a practically useless metal shelf. I know not everyone cares as much about a utilitarian space like a laundry room, but when you spend as much time doing laundry as I do, it matters.
I wanted this space to number one, be functional, and I think we have achieved that especially with the addition of hidden storage. I also wanted it to be a calm, organized space so I didn’t always feel overwhelmed–I mean constant piles of laundry cause enough stress, right?
Last fall I showed you how we built this easy folding shelf to go over our washer and dryer. Once we wrapped that up, the next project was to add some cabinets above the shelf so I could store extra detergent and other household items out of sight. Our laundry room is on the second floor, this way I have a spot to keep cleaning and other items up here too.
Since this is not a public space, it is just a laundry room after all, this was not a project I had a big budget for. The room is small and tucked away but having it not function well was making the task of doing laundry for our family of five that much harder.
{Before}
Above is a look at what I started with, for a year I had an old console table to hold the baskets I put my kids clothes in and a wire shelf above the washer that I really couldn’t reach. I convinced my husband to help me build a quick shelf (see that post here) to go over the washer and ordered the shelf to go in between. Then I ordered some inexpensive stock cabinets from Home Depot for this next stage of the project.
These cabinets are unfinished wood but they were just what I needed for a room like this. I knew that I’d change the color, because a little paint can go a long way not to mention the room needed some brightening up!
I used the leftover paint from my front door makeover, the color is Boothbay Gray by Benjamin Moore which is a pretty pale blue/gray. On one not-too-cold day we had recently, I popped open my HomeRight Medium Spray Shelter in my garage and got out my HomeRight Super Finishmax Paint Sprayer. As the cabinets came unfinished, I didn’t even need to prep them other than a quick wipe down for dust.
Spraying cabinets in this manner goes lightning fast. You can read how I did a whole kitchen of cabinets in this post here, and my Tips and Tricks for Painting Cabinets post HERE. It is seriously so easy, I sprayed on several coats, letting the paint dry well in between and keeping a close eye out for drips. If you have time, I think that the fail-safe method of painting cabinets would have included taking the doors off the cabinet and laying them down on the floor (elevated from the drop cloth) to paint for best results. I did have to watch more carefully for paint drips in this situation but it worked out fine this way too.
I gave each cabinet two coats of paint on the outside and sides. I didn’t paint the inside as the laminate coating on them that makes it impossible for paint to adhere. They dried for a few hours in between coats, then we moved them inside to cure for about a week until they were hung. I hired my go-to handyman to put them up on the wall, mostly because it is a really busy time of year for all of us and I wanted them done not just quickly but of course, securely. He got them hung up last week and now, my laundry room really feels like a finished space.
Not that it actually is completely done, I still need to add molding at the top of the cabinets and I have a plan for a fun red0 on the floor but that will all happen in the new year. In the meantime, getting laundry done is so much easier.
Now I have plenty of space to fold laundry, thanks to the shelf, not to mention plenty of storage above. It’s so much better visually to have everything behind closed doors, and it is also nice to have extra storage for things up on our second floor.
I can’t stress enough that this is not a hard project. The key is having a top quality paint sprayer like the Finishmax which makes it easy to get a factory-looking paint finish on furniture, cabinets or a wood surface. I was a little apprehensive about using such inexpensive cabinets but the paint makes all the difference in the world, plus a little bling in the hardware jazzes them up too. Of course, they will look more finished once I get the molding on top, all in good time.
If you are curious about budget, I paid around $220 for the cabinets (they are 36″ tall, 12″ deep and available here), the folding shelf was less than $75 to build. I have used my Paint Sprayer for some many projects it a long time ago paid for itself (have you seen the price of having your kitchen cabinets professionally painted?!). For more information on the HomeRight Super FinishMax, you can shop it below.
XO,
